Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CORALVILLE – A smooth season for the Liberty High girls wrestling team hit a bit of a bump early at the Class 2A state tournament on Thursday afternoon.

It didn’t take long for the Lightning to get back up to speed.

After going 2-6 in the opening round on Thursday Liberty High bounced back with a strong finish and will send six wrestlers to the second and final day of the state meet on Friday at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

“One thing our coach always tells us is ‘take this match, learn from it and then flush it’,” Liberty High senior Callum Wu said. “Knowing its double elimination you have to get your emotions out whether that’s running sprints or just crying you do it and then you flush it and then you go wrestle the next match and put everything into it so you can keep wrestling.”

Wu was one of four Liberty High wrestlers that rebounded from an opening loss with back-to-back consolation wins as Liberty High went 11-2 in consolation matches on Thursday.

Freshman Kate Eggleston and senior Evelyn Eggleston each bounced back from a quarterfinal loss with second-round consolation wins as Liberty High finished the opening day seventh in the Class 2A team standings with 39.5 points.

“Having our whole team here was amazing, I got to feed off the other girls’ energy, we all kind of feed off each other,” Liberty High junior Peyton Van Dyke said. “We knew a lot of us did lose a match here or there but I think just feeding off each other and our belief in each other and our encouragement was a big part of it.”

The bounce back stories for the Lightning are up and down the lineup.

Fourth-ranked senior Taylor Cavanh (21-4) was pinned by No. 11 London Vermillion of Southeast Polk in a 105-pound opener but responded with consecutive wins over seventh-ranked Alyssa Sheets of Oskaloosa and Olivia Sheffield of Decorah.

Seventh-ranked sophomore Evalynn Karam (38-9) dropped a 13-1 major decision to sixth-ranked Greenley Grell of Central DeWitt in the opening round at 110 pounds before back-to-back consolation pins of Kylee Adams of Newton and eighth-ranked Aviea Holden of North Scott.

Wu and Van Dyke each followed the same path to day two.

Wu (40-8) dropped her opener to No. 10 Jenna Hansen of Sioux City North but won an 8-6 decision over Cedar Rapids Jefferson’s Izzy Szabo and a 12-1 major decision over Kat Diprima of Fort Madison to remain alive in the 145-pound bracket.

“I think it definitely helps having great people go before me and being able to feed off their winning energy,” Wu said. “That lets me know I can go out on the mat and do the same thing.”
Van Dyke (34-9), who placed eighth last season, had the toughest opening-round loss, a 3-2 setback in ultimate tie breaker to No. 11 Bella Bruin of Raccoon River-Northwest.

She responded with a third-period pin of Natalie Ritter of Cedar Falls and pinned No. 7 Kasee Huss of MOC-Floyd Valley in 3:44 in her second-round consolation match at 155 pounds.

“You just know that you have to win or you are going to be regretting it the entire offseason until next season,” Van Dyke said. “For me I did not want that feeling and I knew I had to do something.”

Seventh-ranked Kate Eggleston (43-5) opened with a second-period pin of No. 8 Jada Mingus-Alfaro of Spencer at 115 pounds before being pinned by third-ranked Kate Seery of Linn-Mar in the quarterfinals.

Eggleston responded with a first-period pin of fifth-ranked Cora Schut of Sioux Center in the consolation bracket.

Evelyn Eggleston (33-5) did the same, pinning Haley Togba of Ankeny in 2:22 in the opening round at 140 pounds before dropping a 9-0 major decision to top-ranked Calista Rodish of Raccoon River-Northwest in the quarterfinals.

Evelyn Eggleston won a 15-0 tech fall over Kylie Ernst of Cedar Falls in her second-round consolation match.

“We’ve been building this team for years now,” Wu said. “You can really see it, we’ve got 40 or 50 girls signed up to wrestle at the middle school level and all of those girls are already working hard to grow the sport and to grow Liberty wrestling as well.”

Class 2A State Tournament

At Xtream Arena in Coralville

Team scores (Top 10; area teams) – 1. Raccoon River-Northwest 71; 2. Ankeny 57.5; 3. Southeast Polk 54; 4. Cedar Falls 53; 5. Algona 52; 6. South Tama 42; 7. Liberty High 39.5; 8. Waverly-Shell Rock 38.5; 9. Linn-Mar 35; 10. Cedar Rapids Prairie 30; 23. West High 16; 32. City High 12

Opening Round (area results)

105 – London Vermillion (Southeast Polk) pinned Taylor Cavanh (Liberty High) 5:04

110 – Greenley Grell (Central DeWitt) major dec. Evalynn Karam (Liberty High) 13-1

115 – Jordin Mayson (Ottumwa) dec. Brianna Lucero (West High) 9-3

115 – Kate Eggleston (Liberty High) pinned Jada Mingus-Alfaro (Spencer) 2:54

120 – Abigail Meyrer (Pleasant Valley) pinned Martha Willard (City High) 1:07

125 – Jaya Theilen (Ames) dec. Kaitlyn Raue (Liberty High) 9-3

135 – Lexa Rozevink (Ames) pinned Acasia Lukalaba Ndomba (Liberty High) :50

140 – Evelyn Eggleston (Liberty High) pinned Haley Togba (Ankeny) 2:22

145 – Jenna Hansen (Sioux City North) dec. Callum Wu (Liberty High) 9-5

155 – Bella Bruins (Raccoon River Northwest) dec. Peyten Van Dyke (Liberty High) 3-2 UTB

155 – Shaona Emmanuel (City High) pinned Natalie Ritter (Cedar Falls) :39

190 – Eva Jara (West High) pinned Aubrey Borcherding (Dallas Center-Grimes) 1:59

Quarterfinals

115 – Kate Seery (Linn-Mar) pinned Kate Eggleston (Liberty High) 4:35

140 – Calista Rodish (Raccoon River-Northwest) major dec. Evelyn Eggleston (Liberty High) 9-0

155 – Shaona Emmanuel (City High) pinned Bella Bruins (Raccoon River Northwest) 2:22

190 – Eva Jara (West High) dec. Briar Ludeman (Cedar Falls) 6-4

First Round Consolation

105 – Taylor Cavanh (Liberty High) pinned Alyssa Sheets (Oskaloosa) 5:54

110 – Evalynn Karam (Liberty High) pinned Kylee Adams (Newton) 3:23

115 – Brianna Lucero (West High) pinned Kaylea Hintze (Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson) 1:55

120 – Martha Willard (City High) dec. Evelyn Faubus (Ballard) 6-4

125 – Kaitlyn Raue (Liberty High) dec. Brenna Ruff (Cedar Rapids Prairie) 7-0

135 – Emersyn Zehner (Boone) pinned Acasia Lukalaba Ndomba (Liberty High) 5:14

145 – Callum Wu (Liberty High) dec. Izzy Szabo (Cedar Rapids Jefferson) 8-6

155 – Peyten Van Dyke (Liberty High) pinned Natalie Ritter (Cedar Falls) 4:37

Second Round Consolation

105 – Taylor Cavanh (Liberty High) dec. Olivia Sheffield (Decorah) 9-7

110 – Evalynn Karam (Liberty High) pinned Aviea Holden (North Scott) 3:20

115 – Kate Eggleston (Liberty High) pinned Cora Schut (Sioux City North) 1:40

115 – Brianna Lucero (West High) pinned Ashlyn Leslie (Nevada) :44

120 – Brianna Kiger (Carroll) pinned Martha Willard 5:12

125 – Karlie Kruse (Ankeny) major dec. Kaitlyn Raue (Liberty High) 10-0

140 – Evelyn Eggleston (Liberty High) tech. fall Kylie Ernst (Cedar Falls) 15-0

145 – Callum Wu (Liberty High) major dec. Kat Diprima (Fort Madison) 12-1

155 – Peyton Van Dyke (Liberty High) pinned Kasee Huss (MOC-Floyd Valley) 3:44

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